The Heavenly Table: A Novel

It is 1917, in that sliver of borderland that divides Georgia from Alabama. Dispossessed farmer Pearl Jewett ekes out a hardscrabble existence with his three young sons: Cane (the eldest, handsome, intelligent); Cob (short, heavyset, a bit slow); and Chimney (the youngest, thin, ill-tempered). Several hundred miles away in Southern Ohio, a farmer by the name of Ellsworth Fiddler lives with his son, Eddie, and his wife, Eula.

Final Girls: A Novel

Ten years ago college student Quincy Carpenter went on vacation with five friends and came back alone, the only survivor of a horror movie-scale massacre. In an instant she became a member of a club no one wants to belong to - a group of similar survivors known in the press as the Final Girls.

Face-to-face with some of America's most terrifying killers, FBI veteran and ex-Army CID colonel Robert Ressler learned from them how to identify the unknown monsters who walk among us - and put them behind bars. Now the man who coined the phrase "serial killer" and advised Thomas Harris on The Silence of the Lambs shows how he has tracked down some of the nation's most brutal murderers. Join Ressler as he takes you on the hunt for America's most dangerous psychopaths. It is a terrifying journey you will not forget.

The Weight of This World

A combat veteran returned from war, Thad Broom can't leave the hardened world of Afghanistan behind, nor can he forgive himself for what he saw there. His mother, April, is haunted by her own demons, a secret trauma she has carried for years. Between them is Aiden McCall, loyal to both but unable to hold them together. Connected by bonds of circumstance and duty, friendship and love, these three lives are blown apart when Aiden and Thad witness the accidental death of their drug dealer and a riot of dope and cash drops in their laps.

Jennifer Knight says:"Listened to the whole thing in less than 24 hrs"

Little Heaven: A Novel

From electrifying horror author Nick Cutter comes a haunting new novel, reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian and Stephen King's It, in which a trio of mismatched mercenaries is hired by a young woman for a deceptively simple task: check in on her nephew, who may have been taken against his will to a remote New Mexico backwoods settlement called Little Heaven. Shortly after they arrive, things begin to turn ominous.

Where All Light Tends to Go

The area surrounding Cashiers, North Carolina, is home to people of all kinds, but the world that Jacob McNeely lives in is crueler than most. His father runs a methodically organized meth ring, with local authorities on the dime to turn a blind eye to his dealings. Having dropped out of high school and cut himself off from his peers, Jacob has been working for this father for years, all on the promise that his payday will come eventually.

Child of God

In this taut, chilling audiobook, Lester Ballard - a violent, dispossessed man falsely accused of rape - haunts the hill country of East Tennessee when he is released from jail. While telling his story, Cormac McCarthy depicts the most sordid aspects of life with dignity, humor, and characteristic lyrical brilliance.

Father and Son

Larry Brown, a remarkable literary voice from the South, is a veteran of the Vietnam War and spent 17 years as a firefighter. Distilling his experiences, he has developed a deep understanding of the darker forces at work in men's souls.

The I-5 Killer

As a young man, Randall Woodfield had it all; he was a star athlete with good looks and an award-winning student. Working in the swinging West Coast bar scene, he had more than his share of women. But he wanted more than just sex. An appetite for unspeakable violent acts led him to cruise the I-5 highway through California to Washington, leaving a trail of victims along the way. As the list of the dead grew, the police mobilized to stop a twisted killer who had 44 known deaths to his name.

The Troop

Once every year, Scoutmaster Tim Riggs leads a troop of boys into the Canadian wilderness for a weekend camping trip - a tradition as comforting and reliable as a good ghost story around a roaring bonfre. The boys are a tight-knit crew. There’s Kent, one of the most popular kids in school; Ephraim and Max, also well-liked and easygoing; then there’s Newt the nerd and Shelley the odd duck. For the most part, they all get along and are happy to be there - which makes Scoutmaster Tim’s job a little easier.

Black Mad Wheel: A Novel

The Danes - the band known as the "Darlings of Detroit" - are washed up and desperate for inspiration, eager to once again have a number one hit. That is until an agent from the US Army approaches them. Will they travel to an African desert and track down the source of a mysterious and malevolent sound? Under the guidance of their front man, Philip Tonka, the Danes embark on a harrowing journey through the scorching desert - a trip that takes Tonka into the heart of an ominous and twisted conspiracy.

The Last Days of Jack Sparks

It was no secret that journalist Jack Sparks had been researching the occult for his new book. No stranger to controversy, he'd already triggered a furious Twitter storm by mocking an exorcism he witnessed. Then there was that video: 40 seconds of chilling footage that Jack repeatedly claimed was not of his making, yet it was posted from his own YouTube account. Nobody knew what happened to Jack in the days that followed - until now.

Cold Moon over Babylon: Valancourt 20th Century Classics

Welcome to Babylon, a typical sleepy Alabama small town, where years earlier the Larkin family suffered a terrible tragedy. Now they are about to endure another: 14-year-old Margaret Larkin will be robbed of her innocence and her life by a killer who is beyond the reach of the law. But something strange is happening in Babylon: traffic lights flash an eerie blue, a ghostly hand slithers from the drain of a kitchen sink, graves erupt from the local cemetery in an implacable march of terror.

The Fisherman

In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman's Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story.

Edgar and Lucy: A Novel

Eight-year-old Edgar Fini's loyalty is torn between the two women in his life. There's his mother, Lucy, who, though she has moments where she loves him, mostly disappears at night with her various "suitors". And then there's his grandmother, Florence, who dotes on him to the point where she is at a loss when he isn't around. Since his father's suicide, Florence and Edgar's relationship has become obsessive, each fully dependent on the other.

Darker Than Night: The True Story of a Brutal Double Homicide and an 18-Year Long Quest for Justice

In 1985, two 27-year-old friends left their suburban Detroit homes for a hunting trip in rural Michigan. When they did not return, their families and police suspected foul play. For 18 years, no one could prove a thing. Then, a relentless investigator got a witness to talk, and a horrifying story emerged. In 2003, this bizarre case hit the glare of the criminal justice system, as prosecutors charged two brothers, Raymond and Donald Duvall, with murder.

The Stranger Beside Me: The Shocking True Story of Serial Killer Ted Bundy

Ann Rule was working on the biggest story of her career, tracking the trail of victims left by a brutal serial killer. Little did this future best-selling author know that the savage slayer she was hunting was the young man she counted among her closest friends. Everyone's picture of a natural winner, Ted Bundy was a bright, charming, and handsome man with a promising future as an attorney. But on January 24, 1989 Bundy was executed for the murders of three young women - and had confessed to taking the lives of at least thirty-five more women from coast to coast.

Lurk

College student Drew Brady never wanted the power to spy on his friends. But late one night, he finds a box of old Polaroids buried under his house that can change to show him whatever he desires, and Drew finds himself with the power to watch the people around him without them ever knowing.

The Night Stalker: The Life and Crimes of Richard Ramirez

Decades after Richard Ramirez left 13 dead and paralyzed the city of Los Angeles, his name is still synonymous with fear, torture, and sadistic murder. Philip Carlo's classic The Night Stalker, based on years of meticulous research and extensive interviews with Ramirez, revealed the killer and his horrifying crimes to be even more chilling than anyone could have imagined. The story of Ramirez is a bizarre and spellbinding descent into the very heart of human evil.

Crimes in Southern Indiana: Stories

With this critically acclaimed debut collection, Frank Bill announces himself as an author of fiercely defined vision. In these vivid tales, Bill’s southern Indiana proves a literary destination of immense nuance, even as his mostly working-class characters cry out in voices that cannot be denied.

Spoonbenders: A Novel

Teddy Telemachus is a charming con man with a gift for sleight of hand and some shady underground associates. In need of cash, he tricks his way into a classified government study about telekinesis and its possible role in intelligence gathering. There he meets Maureen McKinnon, and it's not just her piercing blue eyes that leave Teddy forever charmed but her mind - Maureen is a genuine psychic of immense and mysterious power.

The North Water: A Novel

Behold the man: stinking, drunk, and brutal. Henry Drax is a harpooner on the Volunteer, a Yorkshire whaler bound for the rich hunting waters of the arctic circle. Also aboard for the first time is Patrick Sumner, an ex-army surgeon with a shattered reputation, no money, and no better option than to sail as the ship's medic on this violent, filthy, and ill-fated voyage.

Publisher's Summary

From the acclaimed author of Knockemstiff—called “powerful, remarkable, exceptional” by the Los Angeles Times—comes a dark and riveting vision of America that delivers literary excitement in the highest degree.

In The Devil All the Time, Donald Ray Pollock has written a novel that marries the twisted intensity of Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers with the religious and Gothic over­tones of Flannery O’Connor at her most haunting.

Set in rural southern Ohio and West Virginia, The Devil All the Time follows a cast of compelling and bizarre characters from the end of World War II to the 1960s. There’s Willard Russell, tormented veteran of the carnage in the South Pacific, who can’t save his beautiful wife, Charlotte, from an agonizing death by cancer no matter how much sacrifi­cial blood he pours on his “prayer log.” There’s Carl and Sandy Henderson, a husband-and-wife team of serial kill­ers, who troll America’s highways searching for suitable models to photograph and exterminate. There’s the spider-handling preacher Roy and his crippled virtuoso-guitar-playing sidekick, Theodore, running from the law. And caught in the middle of all this is Arvin Eugene Russell, Willard and Charlotte’s orphaned son, who grows up to be a good but also violent man in his own right.

Donald Ray Pollock braids his plotlines into a taut narrative that will leave readers astonished and deeply moved. With his first novel, he proves himself a master storyteller in the grittiest and most uncompromising American grain.

What the Critics Say

"If Pollock’s powerful collection Knockemstiff was a punch to the jaw, his follow-up, a novel set in the violent soul-numbing towns of southern Ohio and West Virginia, feels closer to a mule’s kick, and how he draws these folks and their inevitably hopeless lives without pity is what the kick’s all about." (Publishers Weekly)

"The God-fearing hard-luck characters who populate Donald Ray Pollock’s debut novel, The Devil All the Time, move through the southern outlands of Ohio and the isolated hollows of West Virginia like figures in a collective nightmare of poverty, addiction, superstition, and crime" (Lisa Shea, ELLE magazine)

“This novel fulfills the promise made by Pollock’s debut collection, Knockemstiff. He is a real writer, and The Devil All The Time hits you like a telegram from Hell slid under your door at three o’clock in the morning.” (William Gay, author of Provinces of Night and The Long Home)

Where does The Devil All the Time rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is among the most captivating audiobooks I've listened to since joining audible. The narration by Mark Bramhall is outstanding.

What other book might you compare The Devil All the Time to and why?

I can compare this to

What about Mark Bramhall’s performance did you like?

Mark Bramhall's narration was pitch perfect. He carried the accents and tone throughout that added to the written form. I never wanted to turn off the audio. The narration and stories were so captivating.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

WOW! What a ride! Wonderful (if bizarre) characters, taut narrative, plot full of unexpected turns and extraordinary narration by Mark Bramhall (but then that is the only way he ever narrates -- extraordinary talent and skill)

The other reviews already mention the bizarre cast of characters. The darkest of the dark. We follow them along their twisted and on-and-off converging paths. Horrified, mesmerized...and, one has to admit, very much entertained at the hands of an expert storyteller and an excellent narrator. Bravo!

Good Hell! If the devil himself crawled up from his fiery abyss and penned his own brand of comedy book, it would probably fall short of the grotesque violence and hopeless despair that chokes the pages of Pollock's very unfunny novel. If you have no taste for Natural Born Killers, No Country For Old Men, American Psycho, or the works of Jim Thompson or Quentin Tarantino, you are in the wrong section of the library. The Devil All the Time is gritty, hard-core, hard-boiled pulp fiction that pummels the reader relentlessly with perverse atrocities delivered by a most bizarre and pitiful casting that only a nightmare could imagine.

If there is any humanity that escapes the borders of Knockemstiff, USA, it is the central character, Arvin Russell -- and he grew up offering blood sacrifices at a*prayer log* (surround by crucifixes adorned with unfortunate critters) with his traumatized WWII vet father, praying that God would deliver his mother from the cancer eating her tormented body. Pollock's RFD route in Knockemstiff includes the team of a spider eating preacher and his crippled pedophile side kick, hiding out at a carnival after the preacher kills his wife so he can raise her from the dead at his next sermon; a sadistic sheriff that earns a little money on the side as a hired hit man; another preacher whose specialty is de-flowering young members of his flock; Carl and Sandy Henderson--she a waitress/prostitute, he a fat hygiene-deficient *splatter* photographer--a tag team serial killer duo that cruises the highways looking for *models* (men) to rape, torture, and photograph.

The saving grace with this kind of material is Pollock's obvious talent and smart, sharp, sparse style that is unapologetically raw. He entwines his novel with God, guilt, poverty, and violence, into a tight plot that ramps up the intensity as it propels this motley crew toward a climactic showdown. What is it that compels us to strain our necks to gawk at a pile-up? I couldn't look away, and couldn't put this down. In small doses, (maybe with some Disney in-between) I intend on devouring everything Pollock writes. I highly recommend BUT only to the truly iron-gutted veterans of dark fiction--you have to have the stomach for this kind of book. Between you and me, I'm a little disgusted with myself for liking it so much. [Disgust Level Comparisons: American Psycho, Dark Places, The Wasp Factory, Haunted.]

If you could sum up The Devil All the Time in three words, what would they be?

Surprising, stunning, unsettling.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I wouldn't say there was a single character in this book who I would ever want to know. A terrifying collection of creeps and killers. But I found myself just wanting to know what was going to happen next, and the writing was dark, but unique and powerful. This is not a happy smiling story. Nobody has a nice day in this tale. This is not a book for the faint of heart or the squeamish. If you mixed Cormac McCarthy with Truman Capote and Stephen King...well, that would be one ugly but fascinating kid. That's what this book is like. This is a book for people who slow down and stare at accidents. I'm stunned by it. It was damned good!

What does Mark Bramhall bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narration was simply the best. Reading a book is great, but having a good storyteller tell you a story is better. A narrator can make such a huge difference in the enjoyment of a book, and Mark Bramhall did his job on this one. Splendid narration.

Who was the most memorable character of The Devil All the Time and why?

The Sheriff.

Any additional comments?

It's very good, but I wouldn't recommend it to the timid types, people who scare easily, or most women I know who expect romance and cute endings. This is a hard-edged scary book.

This is the kind of book that never gets written because people want sunshine and happy endings. What ever happened to these kind of books. I recommend this all the way to people who want to listen to the raw dark under belly of America.

What an excellent story! The book is so well written, and the story so greatly performed, that the listener is thrust right into the depressing world the author created. The characters are so well fleshed out that I found myself rooting for most of them despite how awful they are. It was really hard to put the headphones down, and I'm sure to give this book another listen rather sooner than later.

I am always looking for something offbeat and different and my wish was granted with this book! This is a dark story with unexpected twists and turns. I truly enjoyed the narration as well, and found myself listening to the story long after my commute was over.

What made the experience of listening to The Devil All the Time the most enjoyable?

It’s a captivating story, hard to put down, but it’s also extremely rough. The dreadful & immoral element of man is pervasive in nearly every character, I felt dirty like I needed to clean my mind of the filth, however it’s very well written, and intriguing.

Have you listened to any of Mark Bramhall’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

...AND I LOVE IT. This story is brutal and grisly, gritty and realistic, shocking, nihilistic, sarcastic and constantly amazing. Read by an obvious master...Mark Bramhall propels the listener deep in to this expertly woven world. Please-oh-please write more D. R. Pollock.